North Korea to Get Almost $2B in Benefits from Nuclear Deal

By Jim MannLos Angeles TimesWASHINGTON

The Clinton administration revealed Thursday that under the agreement it
recently signed with North Korea, the Pyongyang government will get nearly
$2 billion in benefits before it has to submit to special international
inspections of its nuclear program.

South Korea will contribute most of the money by supplying the equipment
for new nuclear reactors which make it much harder for North Korea to make
weapons-grade fuel. However, Ambassador-at-large Robert Gallucci, the
Clinton administration's top negotiator, also estimated that the costs to
the United States will be "tens of millions of dollars."

The disclosures came at the first congressional hearing on the nuclear
agreement. During the session, held by the Senate Foreign Relations
Subcommittee on Asia, Republicans voiced considerable unhappiness about the
deal the administration signed in Geneva in October.

"We seem to be giving up, virtually, on every front," complained Sen.
Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska. He argued that the financial benefits North
Korea are to receive will serve to "prop up" the impoverished Pyongyang
government, so that it will be less susceptible to the threat of
international economic sanctions.

The Clinton administration began negotiating with North Korea last year,
after it refused to submit to the International Atomic Energy Agency's
demand to carry out special inspections of two waste sites. Those
inspections could show how much weapons-grade fuel North Korea produced in
the past.

Under the deal, North Korea does not have to submit to the special
inspections for approximately five years - until after "a significant
portion" of the work is finished for the new nuclear reactors. Gallucci
said that work was worth nearly $2 billion. North Korea will not get any of
the key components for the reactors, however, until the special inspections
are carried out.